bruin

From Middle Dutch bruin (“brown”) via William Caxton's 1485 translation of a Dutch version of the legend of Reynard the Fox. Bruin is the bear, named for his brown color.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈbɹuːɪn/
• Rhymes: -uːɪn

bruin (plural bruins)

1. A folk name for a bear, especially the brown bear, Ursus arctos.
   • 1989, Keith Bosley, translating Elias Lönnrot, The Kalevala, XVII:

     The mother sought the one gone / astray, for the lost she longs: / she ran great swamps as a wolf / trod the wilds as a bruin / waters as an otter roamed […].

• Bruni, Burin, Rubin, burin, rub in, rubin

From Dutch bruin.

bruin (attributive bruine, comparative bruiner, superlative bruinste)

1. brown

• IPA^(key): /brœy̯n/
• Rhymes: -œy̯n

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From Middle Dutch bruun, from Old Dutch *brūn, from Proto-Germanic *brūnaz.

bruin (comparative bruiner, superlative bruinst)

1. brown

• Afrikaans: bruin
• → Sranan Tongo: broin

From the adjective bruin.

bruin n (uncountable)

1. the color brown

   Het bruin van de stam contrasteerde fel met het groen van de bladeren.

   The brown color of the trunk contrasted sharply with the green color of the leaves.

bruin c (uncountable)

1. (slang) heroin

   Mijn god, zit ie aan de bruin? ― My god, is he on heroin?

The expression aan de bruin zijn is used for the addiction to heroin only, not for individual shots.

From Dutch bruin.

bruin

1. brown